Saudi king to pay rare visit to Egypt

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian officials say that Saudi King Abdullah will visit on Friday for the first time since the 2011 uprising, in a show of support for newly-elected President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The officials said Thursday that el-Sissi will receive the ailing monarch upon his arrival from Morocco, where he spent time for medical rehabilitation. The visit will be Abdullah's first since the 2011 ouster of Hosni Mubarak, a close ally of both Saudi Arabia and the United States. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations showered Egypt with billions of dollars in aid after el-Sissi, then the army's top general, overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi amid massive protests last summer.